In hospital pharmacies, the pharmacist often fills hypodermic syringes for use by doctors and nurses on the various hospital floors. Many times needles are not attached until immediately prior to use, the particular needle size required on the syringe is not known, or the particular use does not require a needle. The latter use might include injecting medication into a female Luer adapter of a tube used during surgery.
After the pharmacist has filled such a syringe as described above, he places a cap or protector over the front end of the syringe to prevent leakage and contamination. In the past, small rubber or plastic caps have been used which fit over a male tapered adapter on the syringe's forward end.
There had been a problem with these previous syringe caps or protectors because they were small and difficult to handle. Some pharmacists preferred to manually orient each of these syringe protectors so a tubular coupler is pointed upwardly and then "spike" the syringe to the protectors. This "spiking" involves pushing the syringe tip downwardly into the protector, which is supported on a flat horizontal surface, until the protector is wedged onto the syringe tip. This step of preorienting the syringe protector was time consuming for the pharmacist.